David Bowie photographed with a mask at Frida Kahlo's house and museum in Mexico City in October 1997. © Fernando Aceves
It’s a bittersweet week for David Bowie fans. Because not only would it have been the musician’s 72nd birthday on 8 January 2019, but the 10 January marks the 3rd anniversary of his death. He’s, of course, left behind an enduring back catalogue of great music though and some enduring haircuts and outfits too.
And his legacy lives on in a new AR app which was released on his birthday. It was revealed last year that a David Bowie AR app was being released, which is based on the hugely popular V&A exhibition. The exhibition looked at Bowie’s life and music, his style and influences. After having a run at the V&A in 2013 it then toured the globe, before ending last year. But now it lives on permanently in the digital realm.
Bowie studying a mural by Diego Rivera in Mexico City in 1997. © Fernando Aceves
The app, called David Bowie is, features more than 50 3D Bowie costumes and users get to explore the whole museum show, plus some extra stuff that hasn’t been seen before. Which means 400+ high res images of Bowie’s costumes, along with sketches, notes, music videos, handwritten lyrics. Plus archive footage, drawings and photos.
They include his iconic 1972 show at the Rainbow Theatre, the Sound & Vision Tour from the 90s, live clips from 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour and concept art from his Black Star music videos.
And not only that, but it’s introduced and narrated by Bowie’s longtime friend Gary Oldman too. “This brings the amazing David Bowie is exhibition to a wider audience,” said Oldman in a press release. “It’s great that his fans get to experience it. It was a privilege to be involved.”
David Bowie poses at a photocall for his 'Sound & Vision' Tour under a K.West sign, emulating the cover of 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'. The image was taken at the Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park. © Dave Hogan
Bowie and Oldman both come from South London and met in the 1980s. Oldman once said, “I see him less as 'David Bowie’ and more as Dave from Brixton and I'm Gary from New Cross.” Along with that Oldman starred in the music video for Bowie’s “The Next Day” and they were both in Julian Schnabel’s film Basquiat released in 1996.
And if it’s more of Bowie's music you're after, then there’s some unreleased rarities coming your way too. This year is the 50th anniversary of the release of Bowie’s debut hit song, “Space Oddity”. And to celebrate Parlophone are releasing a collection called Spying Through a Keyhole (Demos and Unreleased Songs) from that period. The title, according to the press release, comes from a previously unknown song called “Love All Around”.
![David Bowie filming the May day Parade in Moscow in 1973. Photographer Geoff MacCormack recalls, "We were given a list of do's and don'ts when we arrived in Siberia to board the 'Trans Siberian Express' - what we could and couldn't photograph - so David was breaking a whole stack of rules by filming the event, considering the amount of military hardware on show. That's why he's looking a little furtive." © Geoff MacCormack](/media/3199/david-bowie-demo-03.jpg?width=1200&height=0&upscale=false&slimmage=true¢er=0.5,0.5&mode=crop "David Bowie filming the May day Parade in Moscow in 1973. Photographer Geoff MacCormack recalls, "We were given a list of do's and don'ts when we arrived in Siberia to board the 'Trans Siberian Express' - what we could and couldn't photograph - so David was breaking a whole stack of rules by filming the event, considering the amount of military hardware on show. That's why he's looking a little furtive." © Geoff MacCormack")
David Bowie filming the May day Parade in Moscow in 1973. Photographer Geoff MacCormack recalls, "We were given a list of do's and don'ts when we arrived in Siberia to board the 'Trans Siberian Express' - what we could and couldn't photograph - so David was breaking a whole stack of rules by filming the event, considering the amount of military hardware on show. That's why he's looking a little furtive." © Geoff MacCormack
The collection of 7” vinyl singles will not only feature the earliest known version of “Space Oddity” but also nine recordings which haven’t been available on physical music format before (Parlophone did a limited streaming release of them last December). Parlophone state that, “Most of the recordings are solo vocal and acoustic home demo performances.” Which, although means the recording quality isn't the best, it gives the demos an intimacy and that fans will no doubt appreciate.
As Parlophone note on their site, “Due to the nature of some of the solo home demos where Bowie accompanied himself on acoustic guitar, the recording quality isn’t always of a usual studio fidelity. This is partly due to David’s enthusiastic strumming hitting the red on a couple of the tracks, along with the limitations of the original recording equipment and tape degradation. However, the historical importance of these songs and the fact that the selections are from an archive of tracks cleared for release by Bowie, overrides this shortcoming.”
You can download the app on iOS and Android. And you can find out more about the new singles collection here.
David Bowie wearing a black scarf on a photo shoot in New York in 2002. © Mick Rock
Rockarchive is delighted to be able to offer many iconic David Bowie images as limited edition photographic prints which you can buy here.
David Bowie was a leading figure in popular music for over five decades & regarded by critics & musicians as a true innovator.
This print is based on a photograph from the Hunky Dory photo session shot in 1971.
David Bowie wearing a black scarf on a photo shoot by Mick Rock in New York in 2002
Aladdin Sane is the one image that has defined David Bowie and is nicknamed the 'Mona Lisa of Pop' - Shot by Duffy in his London studio.
Taken from the Scary Monsters album cover shoot by Duffy in 1980, 'the most beautiful clown in the circus' - David Bowie
Alternative shot taken from the Aladdin Sane 'photo shoot in 1973, known as 'Eyes Open' - this image was rediscovered in the archive in 2011
Terry Pastor shot & hand coloured the photo for the album artwork on David Bowie's iconic album.
David Bowie wearing a two piece quilted suit designed by Freddie Burretti for the 1972 Ziggy Stardust tour.
Terry Pastor photographed & hand coloured the album artwork for Bowie's Spiders from Mars album.
Terry Pastor's photograph of David Bowie from the 'Hunky Dory' album cover photo session.
Photographer Terry Pastor's 'pink' variation of Bowie from the Hunky Dory album cover photo session.
Photographer Terry Pastor shot & hand coloured the photo artwork for Bowie's Hunky Dory album.
This hand coloured print is based on a photograph by Terry Pastor from the Hunky Dory photo session.
in 1997 prior to his first ever gig in Mexico City David Bowie explores the local cultural sites including the 'Pyramids of Teotihuacan'
Taken at Freida Kahlo’s Museum known as the ‘Blue House’, in Mexico City a few days before David Bowie's first ever concert in Mexico, 1997
David Bowie onstage at his first and only ever concert in Mexico in July 1997
This was a really special performance in October 1973 as it was Bowie's first since announcing his retirement a couple of months before.
David Bowie at press conference for his single 'Lets Dance' at the Savoy Hotel in London. It was the fifteenth studio album by Bowie.
David Bowie and Mick Ronson eating lunch on a train to Aberdeen in 1973 heading to the first gig of David Bowie's final Ziggy Stardust Tour
David Bowie looking into a mirror at Haddon Hall, Beckenham in March 1972 during an interview for Club International magazine.
David Bowie captured by Mick Rock whilst applying make-up in Scotland in 1973
David Bowie, Lou Reed & Iggy Pop during a press conference at the Dorchester Hotel, London in July 1972
David Bowie photographed by Mick Rock at Haddon Hall Beckenham in March 1972,
Contact sheet of David Bowie images taken during an interview in London, 1972. One of the images was used on the cover of Melody Maker
Newcastle City Hall, 1973, Ian Dickson eludes security to take this photograph of David Bowie performing as the legendary Ziggy Stardust
David Bowie performing at Newcastle City Hall, UK on the Ziggy Stardust Tour in June 1973
David Bowie performing to an audience of twenty at the Beckenham Arts Lab, UK at the start of his career in 1969
Performing as part of The Hype, David Bowie onstage at the Roundhouse in July 1970
Although originally taken in black and white, this image has the feel of an early 1940s movie star, hence the sepia finish I settled upon.
We drank cheap Riesling and beer (Peeva) with a bunch of soldiers we'd met the night before. They were friendly and inquisitive.
David Bowie in Ziggy makeup in 1973. This shot was taken at the Hammersmith Odeon before the last show of the tour.
I took advantage of the free time and the sublime New Mexico light and picked up my Nikon. This image of David is one of my favourites.
David Bowie photographed whilst filming the 1976 sci-fi film The Man Who Fell To Earth.
David Bowie photographed looking out over the May Day Parade on Red Square, Moscow, 1973
He's playing up to my camera to keep himself amused in-between takes. It's as if he is saying: "And you are?"
David Bowie and photographer Geoff MacCormack backstage on the set of The Man Who Fell to earth.
David Bowie listening to a playback of 'Station to Station’ at Cherokee Studio, Los Angeles.
David chose this image from The Man Who Fell To Earth (1975) for publicity posters in the late seventies.
This was the site of the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945, an eerie and desolate place.
David Bowie performing live at Wembley Arena, London on the A Reality Tour in November 2003
Limited edition print of Morgan Howell's original painting of the cover of David Bowie's 'Rebel Rebel' vinyl single
Official Duffy photograph of David Bowie sitting with a Scottie Dog during a pre-production meeting for the Scary Monsters photo shoot
Contact sheet from the Scary Monsters photo shoot taken during the last of Duffy's 'Five Sessions' with David Bowie
David Bowie performing onstage at the Falkoner Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark in April 1976 on his Isolar-1976 Tour.
David Bowie at his flat in Beckenham in 1969. This photograph was used as the cover to 'Lover To The Dawn', a 10-song acoustic demo tape.
The Thin White Duke onstage during his Isolar-1976 Tour in Copenhagen in 1976
In 1990 David Bowie poses at a photocall for his 'Sound & Vision' Tour at the Rainbow Theatre not Heddon Street as the K.West sign suggests
The Aladdin Sane image was digitally remastered to a black and white negative format by Chris Duffy in 2012
On the video shoot for 'Loving the Alien', the opening track from Bowie's 'Tonight' album
David Bowie photographed with a mask at Frida Kahlo's house and museum in Mexico City in October 1997
David Bowie at home, smoking in bed in his apartment on Foxgrove Road, Beckenham in July 1969, the morning after the first moon landing.
Official contact sheet print from the acclaimed Duffy archive of David Bowie in his Scary Monsters Pierrot costume in 1980.
David Bowie in front of a Diego Rivera mural whilst visiting the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in October 1997
Iconic Mick Rock photograph of David Bowie during the 'Saxophone' Session in London 1973
David Bowie on the video shoot for 'Loving the Alien' at Meantime Studios, London in March 1985.
Legendary Mexican photographer Fernando Aceves systematically focuses on music full-time and is a world authority on King Crimson.
Dave Hogan or ‘Hogie’, as he’s affectionately known is a stalwart of the glamorous red carpet, concerts and A-list party scene worldwide.
During the years 1973-1976 writer/producer Geoff MacCormack toured with David Bowie on the Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust tour.
Music photographer Mick Rock may be best known as 'The Man Who Shot the Seventies', instrumental in creating many key rock ’n’ roll images.
We are all still reeling from the tragic loss of David Bowie. Here is a wonderful tribute from one of our photographers, Mark Mawston.
David Bowie was recently honoured with three new blue plaques that went up in went up in Maidstone, Hull, and Trident Studios in Soho.
A David Bowie statue was recently unveiled in Aylesbury, England, which is the place where Bowie debuted his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.
